U.S. will not prosecute pilots for bombing Canadians in Afghanistan
 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Air Force has decided not to court-martial the two pilots who mistakenly bombed Canadian troops in Afghanistan last year, killing four, a senior defense official said Thursday.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/06/19/mi....ap/index.html

Good!

Sticking the pilots with all the responsability would have been wrong.
They lacked restraint, but it was a war zone. I think the military should review their " modus operandi " so that these events are less likely to happen again.

Sympathy to the families of my compatriots.

I just saw that.. Although I feel for the families that lost loved ones, I am so glad they made that decision.

The problem is is that everyone assumes that all militaries are equally trained and equipped.

The Canadians were not equipped with 'friendly designators' which allows the US to know who's a friend or foe via US HUDs.

This is another terrible example of how dangerous warfare is when you try to mix international units in the field.

will they give them medals?

they should still be busted down to a private and dishonorably discharged

Just a little pay back for not going along with the US in the war in Iraq.

No one is ever prosecuted for publicized acts of stupidity. Bombing the chinese embassy, this bombing, and a whole bunch of other shit. It's all a bunch of P.R. bullshit. Someone fucked up, and someone should be held accountable, if not the pilots then someone responsible for their intel. This isn't an accident, this is a fuckup. An accident would be a pilot getting into a plane and one of the missiles just exploding for no apparent reason.

it's war. friendly fire incidents occour. especially if the stupid asses didn't have IFF (indentifaction Friendly or Foe) units. the great canadian-american war as phrophosized in canadian bacon is becoming a reality! viva la revolucion!

I have allways belived that the bombing of the chinese embassy was done on purpose.. kinda a opps we fucked up pay back... atleast I hope it was.

That cannot be done without them being Court Martialed. They had an Article 32 hearing (the militaries equivilent of a Grand Jury) and it was apparently determinded that they were not criminally liable for their actions and/or the evidence was not stong enough to aquire a conviction for the charges that they faced. Decisions that are made to Court Martial or not to Court Martial have a Command review process. In the this instance the Command review agreed with the Article 32 conclusion.

They will be punished for what happened as their careers in the military will basically be over and they will probably resign.

Pilots are officers

please tell me how you bust an officer down to a private, which is enlisted

oh I guess you've never served or you would know that

Shit happens.

uhm..... the polit thing happened BEFORE Iraq.

the pilots made a mistake. They should be punished. But it wasen't like they woke up one day and said "Hey, lets kill some canuks"

Your glad they made the desicion to drop the bombs? :321GFY


EDIT: oops, sorry, took it in wrong context :)

Its war, shit happens, only reason we know about it is because of the damn media. Go look up some info on friendly fire casualties of WW2, it?s not pretty....

They were wearing those reflective stripes, and they fillled out a report or whatever letting the air force know where they were training that night. That info wasn't passed onto the pilots properly.

That being said, its a terrible thing, but they don't really need to throw the pilots in jail for it. Someone fucked up, problably a few people fucked up. Already ruined enough families lives, why wreck any more.

When you order people to go to war, ....you have to figure they are going to war...

If you were in a war would you not go BALLS OUT....kill em all or you would you try to play by the marcus of queens berry rules?


not the pilots fault!

hmmm FF (friendly fire) now kills more US and allies in a war then actual enemy activity......

That is why we should go to war only when it is REALLY necassary!

not just for some oil...or braging rights!

What should be or what could happen is two different things

If they are not gonna push court martial then they'll prolly do
Article 15 non judicial punishment under the UCMJ (uniform code of military justice). The max they could be punished will be something like a
-30 day house arrest
-60 days restriction
-1/2 months pay for like 3 months
-a letter of reprimand, which equals out to an end of their carreer in the service


and ya i remembered this back when i served as a cadet sargent major in my high school's JROTC :1orglaugh

Just remember this scenario when it happens to the US. Britian
may accidentally bomb some US soldiers...


I don't agree with destroying those successful pilots, but they
were told not to fire.

The Article 32 investigation supercedes an Article 15 (I am not sure that officers are even subject to an Article 15) and they were cleared of the charges filed against them by the Article 32 hearing. Their punishment will be non judcial and they will probably resign (they probably have already been asked by their Commanding General to resign).

Very true ... when the bullets start flying people start dying, both good and bad. That is how it goes.

It was just reported that one of the Officers resignation has been accepted and the other will be subject to face an Article 15 for certain violations which I did not catch...thus it is apparent that an Officer is subject to an Article 15. When an Article 15 is presented the individual can opt to accept an Article 15 or request a Court Martial. In my 12 years of service I never heard of an Officer receiving an Article 15, but then again maybe I did and it slipped my memory.

What I was saying is, you cannot reduce an officer to the rank of private. Private is an enlisted rank, and officer is not enlisted, therefore he cannot be reduced to an enlisted rank.

My point being that not all information is readily available to everyone in the field. Even among other 'modern' armies.

If the command to fire was done locally, ie wing/squadron rather that the C&C level then that officer didn't know about the Canadians. There are many possibilities why this was the case. Most likely because crucial information was withheld/reported too late/was reported improperly. This snafu could have been caused by either side or both.

I think that knowing they killed those Canadians is punishment enough. The order to fire rests further up the ladder.

Personally, if I had known that I killed allies in the field would be tremendously difficult on my conscience.

Of course if it was a french unit I might not feel too bad.


:winkwink:

Well what do you think a Non Judcial punishment is, its called an Article 15

in that case someone should get in shit for fucking up and not telling the pilots. it shouldn't be a criminal matter, but someone fucked up.